Preparing your teen to leave the nest

[Anonymous]

What are some things you are doing to encourage your fledgling to gain more independence so that they are truly ready to “leave the nest” in a few short years ?

For me: I make my kids in charge of their schedules. When they ask me: mom, when is this or that event? I respond by saying, I don’t know. You need to look it up! You’re in charge of your activities, not me. Or today, when the manager of my daughters sports team asked me what size uniform did she fit into, I said: I don’t know. You’re going to have to ask her. At this age, she knows more about that than I do.

[Anonymous]

I make them take over most of the household chores!! Including things like plumbing repairs. That way living on their own won't seem so daunting

This year they learned how to do a Thanksgiving dinner -- grocery shopping to clean up.

[Anonymous]

Make sure they can cook a few meals and do their own laundry.

[Anonymous]

Balance a checkbook and understand how credit cards work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Balance a checkbook and understand how credit cards work.

Who balances a checkbook anymore? Just look online.

[Anonymous]

We spend as much time driving with our teens as possible to simulate driver's ed in countries with much better training than ours.

[Anonymous]

budget and pay bills (wants vs needs)
cook (at least simple meals like spaghetti, eggs, etc)
how to use all appliances and put out a kitchen fire (also things like don't put aluminum foil in the microwave)
how to hold a kitchen knife when chopping
grocery shop on a budget and basics of safely storing food
Car maintenance (put gas in a car, understand when a car needs oil, wiper fluid, etc). Knowing where necessary insurance/registration papers are if they are pulled over or in an accident
laundry
unclog a toilet or reset a circuit breaker (never needed to do this in a dorm room, but definitely useful skills)
how to stay safe in variety of circumstances (walking to car in parking lot, parties, travel well-lit and populated areas at night, etc)

[Anonymous]

Brokerage accounts: DH was worked with DS on how to analyze companies since DS was about 7 years old; he’s 12 now and knows how to sign into his brokerage accounts, calculate & trigger buy/sell orders. We review accounts ~ once per month.

Money: we have him go out to lunch on his own or shopping on his own and use his credit card for purchases. We’re overseas, so he needs to know how to deal with the currency prompts. He’s too young to have even a custodial account where we currently live, but will set that up when the time comes.

Cooking: DS makes basic simple dishes that he likes (pasta, omelettes, grilled meat).

Laundry: In the summers, we rotate laundry chores. During the school year, it’s too much work to deal with pressing school uniforms so I only have him seperate clothes by color.

Travel: last year, we had DS travel solo three times overseas. Once was with a school group, and the other two times as an unaccompanied minor, but with layovers, immigration and switching out cellphone chips. Hoping to have him start traveling fully unaccompanied by the time he’s 14 or so.

Navigating: he has to navigate (instead of me using google maps) when we drive places, and we have him run errands within 20 blocks or so of our house.

Homework: DS has adhd, so this has been slow. We still supervise a lot, but are gradually shifting more responsibility to him for organizing himself and getting his work done on time.